family night | Family Wishes Jar • 2012

Good Monday Morning everyone!! (and Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Day)

I'm feelin' fired up from a productive weekend...
and I'm looking forward to a great week ahead.

It's the 3rd week of January...can you believe it?
almost the end of the first month of a brand-new year!?
Some of us may still be creating resolutions...
and setting goals.

With that said...
I wanted to share with you something we did for Family Night a couple of weeks ago.
Since I'm always looking for ways to strengthen our family...
by actively keeping our connections alive and well...
I came up with the idea of creating a "Family Wishes" Jar!

(My inspiration came from this post/photo from Green Wedding Shoes).


We sat down as a family...
I gave everyone 4 slips of paper...
and we each came up with activities we'd like to do together at some point over the course of 2012.
The activities were not meant to cost money, necessarily...
but to promote engaging family activities - in some form or fashion.

Some of the ideas were as simple as:
• getting outside and playing together...(game of volleyball, football)

• heading to a location for some fun...(park, beach)

• staying inside for a game of cards/dice.

With our ideas gathered, I stuck them in an ordinary, random jar I had and set them to the side.


It wasn't until this past week...
I took some time to transform a jar I already had into what is now our official
"FAMiLY WiSHES JAR".
It's something we can keep on display...
Selecting items one-by-one until we've accomplished them all.
(All I need to do is change out the tag every year).

I started out with this look...

But I really wanted it to match my creamy white home decor so I changed out the blue ribbon for creamy tulle...

Here's how I created the jar...
(all of these items I already had on hand - no need to purchase anything new)

SUPPLiES:
• jar from Target
• Armour Etching Cream
• Paintbrush
• Scotch Tape
• Vinyl Stickers from Office Depot
• Pink Felt Sticker from Martha Stewart



STEP ONE
Apply stickers to jar using scotch tape as a guide for keeping them aligned
AND...to create a frame around the letters.


STEP TWO
Apply Etching Cream and wait 90 seconds


STEP THREE
Rinse under running water to remove etching cream


STEP FOUR
Wipe off excess water and peel stickers off. Done!

You've seen me use this process before.

It's a fast...

simple way...

 to personalize any glass or mirrored item.

Want more specifics on this technique?

See this post...

Don't let the jar distract you...

If it inspires you...GREAT!

My real goal today was to inspire you to create your own FAMiLY WiSHES.

They could be in the form of a list instead of a jar.

It's not about the container...

It's about sitting down together and coming up with ideas...

and then following through on those ideas.

THAT'S what's important!

Presentation is just the icing on the cake! *wink*

KEEPiNG iT REAL

So excited to have checked off some things on my "promise ME" list this weekend.

(I'll share details with you this week).

Feelin' good and motivated...

How are YOU doing?